


sandbar beats

by scorpionGrass



Series: golden hour [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Duel Links, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Post-Ceremonial Duel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28354209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpionGrass/pseuds/scorpionGrass
Summary: Domino City had many thinly veiled words for Seto Kaiba after Battle City. So he builds Duel Links, and programs in a surprise for the only girl he cares about.
Relationships: Ishizu Ishtar/Kaiba Seto
Series: golden hour [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2076489
Comments: 16
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

The time difference between Egypt and Japan is seven hours. They don’t talk every day, they barely email each other, but Seto Kaiba knows when Isis Ishtar wakes up, leaves for work, and gets home. He knows he can call her at seven at night every night just in time for her to clock out for her lunch break if he is so inclined.

But there is business at hand, teams to check on, papers to sign, and a virtual world to launch. Seto Kaiba has never let anyone distract him from his work, and he refuses to start now.

So he makes Isis Ishtar his work and decides that's a good enough compromise.

~

Isis can feel Malik’s eyes on her as she goes about her morning routine. She makes coffee, pressing the convenient button on the machine and watching it drip into her favourite mug. There’s nothing unusual about today. The sun is hot, the sky is blue, and work starts in another hour, yet Malik won’t stop staring at her.

“Is there something you want to say, Malik?” Isis finally asks as the machine finishes filling her mug. She picks it up and turns to him, leaning back on the counter with a curious look.

Malik sighs dramatically. “Seto Kaiba kissed you,” he says, exasperated.

“That happened weeks ago,” Isis says. “What else can I possibly say about it that I haven’t already?”

“You’re different,” Malik adds. “You haven’t had an outright panic attack in a while, and you’re super relaxed. Like… like you’ve-- oh, Ra, please don’t tell me you slept with him?”

Isis quirks a smile and sips at her coffee. “I do hope you’ll stop indulging your curiosity regarding myself and Seto Kaiba. You might hurt yourself.”

Malik stares at her, wide-eyed and practically offended. “You slept with him,” he says definitively.

“You really have nothing better to do, do you?” Isis says, almost amused as she sweeps out of the kitchen toward her room. “Have fun thinking about that.”

She passes Rishid, bleary-eyed and zombie-like from having just woken up, and overhears Malik begin raving to him about his theories regarding her and Seto Kaiba. Rishid grumbles out a half-coherent response as Isis shuts the door to her room. It’s almost funny, except that this has been going on ever since she returned from Japan almost a full month ago.

First it was the initial shock that it’d even happened, the man who seemed to despise her kissing her in an airport in front of paparazzi and Duel Monsters players alike. Then it was the prying into her trip, what exactly had transpired between the two of them while she was in Japan? Now it’s this. Full-on theorizing of what their relationship even involves, since Isis has said so little on the subject.

Maybe it’s her fault for being so tight-lipped about it all, for wanting some semblance of privacy at least in her own home.

Isis checks her makeup in the mirror and picks out a dress, and as she’s about to change into it, her mobile rings. Seto Kaiba’s name flashes across the screen and she looks fondly at it for a moment before picking up.

“Come back to Japan,” he says as soon as she answers.

Isis smiles. “Is that a suggestion or a demand?” she asks. “And you never call this early. Did something happen?”

“KaibaCorp’s new IP is finally in beta,” Seto says. “I want you to be a beta-tester.”

“I don’t play Duel Monsters anymore. I don’t know how effective I’d be--”

“You don’t need to play Duel Monsters to be useful,” Seto interrupts her, almost as exasperated as Malik had been. “You just need to be here. Are you free for a couple of weeks or not?”

Honestly, work has been slow lately and the artefacts that had been brought back from Japan have already been set back into the museums here, safe and sound in their home country. Isis has nothing pressing to do for a while, and it’s easy enough to get time off during the slower seasons when she still has vacation days to spare.

“I’ll have to check,” she says. “I might be able to take some time off.”

“Let me know. I’ll pay for your flight and--”

“Seto, you don’t have to do that.”

“Yes I do,” he insists. “You’ll be here working for KaibaCorp, giving the team invaluable feedback as a beta-tester, so we’ll pay for your flight and lodgings.”

Isis can’t help but smile. “Okay, I’ll let you pay,” she concedes. “I’ll let you know if I can take the time off as soon as I know.”

“Good.”

And then he hangs up abruptly, as usual. Isis brings her mobile down from her ear and looks at the blank screen for a moment before setting it down on her bed, feeling warm as she changes into today’s dress.

~

Isis Ishtar spends most of the day thinking about Japan, about Seto Kaiba and his strange request. There must be better people for the job out there, but instead he requested her specifically, personally. It shouldn’t feel like a compliment, but somehow it is.

They don’t talk often. He rarely reaches out to her, and she doesn’t see the point in trying to keep up a regular correspondence with someone who’s too busy to take most of her calls.

Even so, they haven’t stopped talking. When she does hear from Seto, it’s always important in a way she can’t describe. It’s not that their conversations are urgent or necessary in any ground-breaking way. It’s more that they’re a welcome break in her days, something Isis can count on and look forward to. They’re the only unexpected thing that doesn’t set off her anxiety like a fire alarm.

Maybe that’s why she can’t stop smiling when she’s approved for three weeks off work to visit him in Japan.

~

Rishid doesn’t look surprised when Isis announces over dinner that she’ll be going on another business trip to Japan. Malik, on the other hand, looks as offended as he did that morning.

“What kind of business trip?” he asks.

Isis had hoped he wouldn’t ask, but it truly is an unavoidable conversation. “KaibaCorp invited me on as a beta-tester for a new project,” she says. “I agreed, since my work at the museum is done and I have nothing urgent to attend to currently.”

Rishid nods. “When will you be leaving?”

“Next week.”

Malik frowns at her. “Business? With KaibaCorp?” he asks, suspicious. “Sounds like an excuse to get laid.”

“It’s not,” Isis says. “Though, who knows…”

Malik makes a face and Isis smiles.

“You shouldn’t bring it up if you’re going to act like a child about it.”

“If he makes you happy, then that’s all that matters,” Rishid says, an echo of what he’d said when she’d arrived back home. “I’ll drive you to the airport,” he offers.

Isis nods. “Thank you, I appreciate it. You two will be fine without me for another few weeks, right?”

“Of course we’ll be fine,” Malik says, crossing his arms. “Will you?”

It shouldn’t sound foreboding, but it does. Rishid puts a hand on her shoulder and Isis blinks out of her momentary panic. “I’ll be fine,” she says, glancing at them both. Then, she smirks. “I’ll be with one of the most powerful men in Japan, after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here they go again


	2. Chapter 2

Isis Ishtar’s brow furrows at the attendant at the airport check-in when she lets her know she’ll be flying First Class before handing her a ticket. Isis reads it over three times before looking back up at the smiling attendant.

“First Class?” she asks.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Isis lets out a huff of a laugh. “I see. Thank you.”

She stows the ticket between the pages of her passport as she walks away, wondering why she’s so surprised. It had been Seto Kaiba who’d arranged everything, after all. She pulls out her mobile and dials his number. It doesn’t take long for him to answer.

“Isis. You’re at the airport?”

“Yes,” she responds, used to the lack of anything that sounds like a real greeting. “I just finished checking in. You booked me in First Class?”

“Did you really want to fly coach again, with all the issues you had last time?” Seto asks dryly. “Or do you want a guarantee that you’ll be comfortable and that they won’t lose everything you own on the transfer?”

“No, I was just surprised is all.”

“You’re a guest of KaibaCorp, why would you expect anything less?”

Somehow, that’s comforting. “I guess it’s something I’ll be getting used to then,” Isis says.

“Good. I’ll have Isono waiting for you when you arrive.”

“You won’t be coming?”

“Depends on how long my last meeting goes,” he says. “What do you want for dinner? We can go out if you’re not tired.”

“It’s an almost forty-hour trip,” Isis says. “I’ll be tired.”

“You couldn’t sleep last time.”

She almost laughs at how confused he sounds. “I’d attribute that problem to you, actually. And the fact that the entire trip had me so anxious that I ended up running off pure adrenaline.”

He scoffs. “Fine, we’ll have breakfast then. Safe travels.”

He hangs up and Isis smiles. Seto Kaiba really is the same as always.

~

It’s only been a month, but when Isis reaches Japan, she’s relieved to find it’s exactly the same. It doesn’t take long to find her suitcase on the carousels, and it takes even less time to find Isono waiting for her in the Arrivals section. Everything is so easy this time, and as she’s led to the same black car that had picked her up last time, Isis wonders where Seto Kaiba booked her stay.

Last time, she’d booked herself in at a hotel as close to the museum as possible, but this time she’s not here to work on an exhibit. She’s here to work at KaibaCorp, and whether that was a complete lie or not has yet to be seen.

Somehow, though, Isis believes it must be a pretense. She really can’t imagine how useful she’ll be as a beta-tester.

Isono takes her through the city, weaving in and out of traffic. It’s a rainy spring day, and most everyone who’s braving the walk outside has an umbrella. Finally, only a few blocks from the KaibaCorp building itself that Isis only recognizes because of the Blue Eyes White Dragon that clings to the glass, they pull into a building.

“This isn’t a hotel,” Isis says when Isono comes around to open her door.

“It’s not,” Isono agrees, handing her a key with a keychain that looks so much like the card locket Seto wears. “Top floor, the code’s in the keychain.”

Isis holds the key between her index finger and thumb, watching it glint in the light. “Really, now?”

Isono finishes pulling out her luggage from the trunk and nods. “He’ll come by after work tonight.”

Isis can’t help but smile again. “Thank you.”

The top floor is 60, and the elevator asks for a passcode before it opens for her. The keychain really is just like Seto’s locket, and opens to reveal a note with his handwriting denoting the code. Underneath it is a black credit card that Isis slides out and examines.

The doors open into a floor-wide loft apartment that’s another storey high. Her phone rings before she can react or even take her first step in.

“Hello?”

“Isis. You arrived alright?”

“Yes, thank you,” she responds. “I didn’t know you moved downtown?”

“The mansion is stuffy and old,” Seto says. “The apartment is closer to work, and you can stay there whenever you visit.”

“I see.”

“You can order takeout with the card,” he adds. “There’s not much in the fridge, and there’s a stack of menus on the counter.”

“I might just do that. Where’s the bedroom?”

Isis looks around, seeing an expansive living room, a gigantic modern fireplace, and a fully equipped kitchen. The open plan just makes everything look bigger, and it’s a little overwhelming. If she weren’t so exhausted, she’d go exploring, but her legs are still getting used to moving again and her eyes feel so heavy.

“There’s a staircase that leads up to it,” he says. “My last meeting is about to start. Goodnight, Isis.”

He hangs up and Isis stares out across the apartment with a smile. He really hadn’t been joking when he said he’d buy her an apartment, and somehow it just makes her laugh now.

Isis decides she’s too tired to carry her luggage up the stairs, so she sets it down on the floor, kneeling over it to pick out her nightgown, a black slip that reaches mid-thigh, and retrieve her toiletries bag. A shower and some sleep sound perfect, and that’s what she plans to do.

~

Every meeting Seto Kaiba has to endure is torture when he knows that just three city blocks away, Isis Ishtar is sleeping in his apartment. He supposes it's his own fault, though. He’d had every opportunity to rearrange his schedule, to cancel and reschedule his day around her, but he hadn’t.

Seto sighs, watching his phone go dark as he hangs up on her, and finally gets up to leave for his final meeting of the day. Mokuba will be joining him, only because he’s finally admitted he needs help getting through these dull affairs. He’s sleeping well again, but that doesn’t mean he wants to deal with every single thing alone.

“Ready to go?” Mokuba asks, sitting on his secretary’s desk and swinging his legs back and forth.

Seto nods. “Let’s go.”

Sometimes he thinks Mokuba is more suited to the business side of things, while Seto is more suited to the developing side. Maybe it’s because Mokuba always insists on buying tailored suits and dress shoes and taming his hair whenever he’s needed at KaibaCorp HQ. He looks the part and is happy to do it, but Seto’s never felt the pull to change out of his belts and overcoat unless it’s for some black-tie event.

He’s heard the comments about him being an eccentric CEO, but as long as he’s effective it doesn’t matter.

“You read the--”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mokuba says, waving his hand flippantly. “Some engineering kids who developed VR tech, but it’s nothing on what we have in-house. Their company looks fine on paper, but I don’t know if investing is the way to go on this one ‘cause they don’t even have a business plan. Even from a recruiting angle, it’s kinda early for the positions we have open?”

Seto nods along, having been too tired to read through the whole folio properly aside from a quick skim. “Why do you think that?”

“They only graduated a couple months ago from Domino U, they have no experience working for anyone,” Mokuba explains as they step into the elevator. “They’re green applying for senior roles.”

“Yeah, and you’re still in high school, VP.”

Mokuba grins. “But I’ve got you.”

“Ah yes, nepotism,” Kaiba quips, though Mokuba has proven to be more than capable on all fronts. He’s not about to tell him that, though.

“So, how’s Isis?” Mokuba asks as they descend through HQ. “She get here okay?”

“She’s arrived, yes. She’s at the apartment.”

“Ooh, the apartment?”

“Don’t be a brat.”

Mokuba just grins again. “Just tell me when you plan on bringing her to the house, I’ll make sure it’s tidy.”

Seto swipes the back of his head. The elevator doors open. He sighs. Down the hall awaits a green team of developers he really doesn’t care to talk to right now. But he’ll be patient. He’s never let anyone distract him from his work before, and he’s definitely not starting now.

~

The apartment looks untouched when Seto gets there, Mokuba having walked him the three blocks over before calling Isono for a drive back to the mansion.

“Have fun,” he’d said with a wink before getting into the car.

This is what Seto gets for making this whole thing go public in the first place. Not that Mokuba had been oblivious in the first place. He walks through to the office, dumping his briefcase there before heading upstairs to the bedroom.

The loft apartment had been an expense he’d been thinking about for a while, to get out of the stuffy mansion that reminded him of everything he hated about his life, but Isis Ishtar had given him the excuse to actually put money down for it. The mansion still exists in his name, but it’s not somewhere he wants to spend any more of his time now that he’s graduated high school.

That part of his life is over.

Isis Ishtar is peacefully asleep under the plush covers on the bed. It’s late, so Seto tries his best not to wake her as he moves through the room, getting ready for bed before joining her.

She’s beautiful, even without the kohl she wears on her eyes or the gold she wraps around her hair. Beautiful and clearly tired, the way she hasn’t moved an inch since he arrived, deep in sleep until the moment Seto’s weight presses into the bed.

Isis shifts, expression crunching slightly before relaxing, fingers curling a little bit tighter over the duvet.

“Seto?” she asks, so softly.

“Sleep, Isis. You’re tired,” he says, just as softly. “I am too.”

Her eyes flutter open, half-lidded. “Okay.”

~

The way Seto watches Isis in the morning when she gets out of bed makes heat coil in her belly. His eyes lazily draw up over her bare legs, her slip only reaching as far down as her thighs even if it had ridden up during the night, exposing her curves in more detail.

“Sleep well?” he asks.

“Yes, and… you did too.” A smile touches her lips. She’d been concerned, whether her solution of acceptance would truly do anything long-term, but it seems he’s just fine now.

“I did.” He smiles back at her.

Isis still marvels at the fact that she’s the one who gets to see this. No one else but her. Seto Kaiba, in all his weak desperacy turned strange affection. She gets to her feet, letting her slip fall back over her thighs. “You promised breakfast?”

“I did that too.”

“Out, or?”

“Here. I’ll order in.”

“Okay.”

The way the light slants in through the clear glass windows, uncovered by blinds or curtains, sets the bedroom aglow in the morning sun. Isis folds her arms loosely around herself, tilting her head at him as she slowly begins to take a turn about the room. “How’s the media?” she asks.

It’s almost funny, the way his expression crinkles in irritation. “Just as bad as it was. Seems nothing more interesting has happened.”

When Isis had returned to Egypt, stepping out into the Arrivals where her brothers awaited her, there had been a crew of paparazzi alongside them. She doesn’t doubt it was far worse for Seto here in Japan. At least the museum she worked at there had strict rules on photography of any kind on the premises, which made it that much harder for them to get to her while she worked.

“Are you working today?”

“No.”

Like always, he’s short with her. Stilted, though, not rude this time. “A whole day?”

“To ourselves, yes.”

Her move, Isis supposes as she comes to stand on his side of the bed. It’s been over a month after all, and Seto doesn’t look quite ready to leave bed yet. She curls a strand of her hair around her finger, shifting her weight, and his eyes follow the sway of her hips.

“I missed you,” she admits, because she thinks he won’t.

He doesn’t, but he reaches an arm out to her and that’s enough. When she crawls back under the covers, he kisses her fervently, cupping her face in his hand. When they break, Isis brushes her fingers through his bangs.

“I can think of something better than breakfast,” she says, before leaning in again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for being so kind to me in your comments on the first chapter~! i hope the wait for this second chapter wasn't too painful <3


End file.
